Tess visits Russell Greene, announcing that God has a special purpose for Josh.

Despite his fathers misgivings, the teenager departs with her and meets Monica, who has temporarily lost her sight. After the Cadillac breaks down, Michael Burns stops and gives Josh and Monica a ride to Denver. His grandfather owns an inner-city mini-mall there and has tasked Michael to fix it up so it can be sold. The inhabitants are abuzz about the new landlord, who has arrived with “a kid and a blind lady.” Uncomfortable in the urban setting, Josh learns from Monica to look with his heart rather than his eyes. The trio befriend Mary Harding, a luncheonette owner; her grandchildren, Calvin and Chanice Cantrell; Queenie, who runs a beauty salon; her vivacious best friend. Tanya Hawkins; Nicky Pacheco, a lawyer on a quixotic quest; Dr. Serena Hall, who persuades Michael to donate a space for her Uncle Gentry’s church; and Anderson Walker, a former activist weary of fighting the system.

With racial tensions already high, Mary urges Michael to take action against the grocer, Kim Chyung Kyung, whom she suspects has a gun. The young landlord also discovers he and Anderson share a love for music and the desire to fix up the mini-mall so Michael can leave. But while he and Josh paint over graffiti, Andrew appears on the scene. Anderson rushes outside and tries to save Michael and Josh from a drive-by shooting…

Tess instructs Celeste, an angel new to human form, and takes her to a Las Vegas showroom to see their assignment–Eric Weiss, an illusionist who calls himself the “angel of death.” The supervisor angel volunteers her jittery charge to participate in his act, but Tess is dismayed when Celeste… and her dog vanish. On a rampage, Eric fires his assistant and yells at his agent, Andrew, who is hard pressed to find another magician’s assistant. Tess cuts Monica’s vacation short to fill that position.

As the case progresses, the angels realize that Eric’s death wish is not merely an extension of his stage routine. The pieces start to come together after he reluctantly agrees to perform in Appleton, Wisconsin, his hometown and also the hometown of Harry Houdini. There he visits his mother, an inpatient in a psychiatric hospital. She asks Danny–Eric’s real name–if he has seen his brother, Peter. He recalls a tragic game of hide- and-seek before abruptly ending his visit. Meanwhile, Monica unwittingly discovers Celeste but fails to convince the wayward angel to turn herself in. During a performance, Eric becomes paralyzed with fear upon seeing his doppelganger in the audience. Her voice returns him to reality, but the illusionist is shaken, convinced that he saw the ghost of his dead, twin brother.

Despite Andrew’s and Monica’s concern, Eric decides to attempt the most dangerous escape of his career, which involves being locked in a refrigerator and lowered to the bottom of a pool. Several minutes elapse until Eric’s brother, Pete steps forward, and Tess orders the crane operator to raise the refrigerator out of the pool. Upon seeing his twin, Eric bolts through the crowd and eventually returns to the junkyard where his brother “died.” Celeste appears and reveals herself to the distraught entertainer. Monica joins the apprentice angel, and the pair urge him to stop playing hide-and-seek with his life. Confronting the painful memory of his brother being trapped in a refrigerator, Eric learns that Pete did not die but was kidnapped by their scornful father. The brothers share an emotional reunion, and Celeste has successfully participated in her first case.

In a hospital emergency room, a team of medics labors furiously to resuscitate an accident victim. Monica and Tess observe unseen and are eventually joined by Andrew when it becomes apparent the patient cannot be revived. The angels reflect on the events that led to this tragedy.

Their assignment had been to help Reverend Daniel Brewer open the Mount Calvary Teen Center. Posing as a building inspector, Monica could see that Tess and Andrew had performed admirably as the center’s fund raiser and as counselor for the crisis hot line, respectively. But as the angels prepared to leave, they received word from God that the assignment was not over. Despite a basketball injury, Daniel gave an uplifting speech at the center’s dedication. But a cynical reporter barraged him with negative questions. Karen Gregg, the daughter of the church’s accountant, approached the pastor to discuss a problem but was interrupted by the pushy journalist. Though Daniel made an appointment to counsel Karen the next day, she required immediate attention. His son, Luke spied her stealing money, while Tess tallied church funds. The minister’s son walked the troubled girl home, where he stopped her from swallowing a handful of pills. Realizing that Karen’s situation was beyond his realm of expertise, Luke decided to drive her to his father. Irritated that his son was absent from the newspaper interview, Daniel drove to pick him up. On a dark, winding road, the cars collided.

Back in the ER, Daniel awakens, confused by the chaos. He is stunned when his wife, Gloria informs him Luke died in the accident. Overwhelmed by guilt, Daniel shuts himself off from her. Though Tess is able to comfort the grieving mother, the pastor vents his frustrations at God. When Daniel absents himself from the funeral, Andrew delivers the eulogy while Monica reveals herself to the distraught minister. She convinces him to forgive himself and carry on the work God has for him. In so doing, he is able to counsel Karen, thereby finishing the task his son had started.

On the way to a performance evaluation, Monica encounters her rival, Kathleen. The dark angel tricks her former friend into entering the wrong office suite. There Monica encounters Jodi, a troubled woman comforted by the angel’s accounts of past assignments. Meanwhile, Tess and Andrew fret while waiting for their colleague. The High Court judge, Ruth, is a distinguished but no- nonsense angel who was once Tess’ supervisor. Troubled by Monica’s tardiness and “irregularities”in her work, Ruth suspends the caseworker and revokes her angel privileges.

While the judge reviews Monica’s mistakes, Andrew recalls an assignment when she mistakenly went to Jacksonville, Florida, rather than Jacksonville, Illinois. Tess dispatches him to search the building. The Angel of Death finds her, but she wants to give Jodi a revelation before starting her evaluation. Mid-revelation, the caseworker is shocked to learn Jodi is actually Kathleen, whose evaluation was based on ruining Monica’s. Tess and Andrew comfort their friend, who arrives in the correct office too late. The supervisor decides to appeal to the Angel of Angels on the grounds of Kathleen’s treachery. Ruth is stunned by the dark angel’s involvement, and Tess forces the judge to confront her own perceived failure: she was Kathleen’s supervisor when she defected to the Other Side.

That pivotal event spurred Ruth to replace her heart with rules and regulations. Seeing Tess’ logic, she sanctions the appeal. Monica meanwhile prays, while a spiteful Kathleen observes. But the dark angel is mortified when the prayer is for God to forgive her misdeeds. The Angel of Angels summons Monica, initially advising her on posture and the benefits of decaffeinated coffee. He then praises her kind heart but cautions her to never let it obstruct the truth. Because of the evidence of her heart, she passes the evaluation, and the Angel of Angels deems her worthy of expanded duties. Reconciled, Tess prompts Ruth to consider returning to casework. And Monica, learning that Kathleen’s superiors have rejected her, suggests that the dark angel appeal to God’s mercy. Touched, she follows that recommendation and repents.

Tess represents a group of former employees in a class-action suit against family-owned Fairchild Tobacco. Her opposing counsel is Marc Hamilton, who has accepted this assignment to the dismay of his mother, Esther. When he was growing up, both she and his late father worked for Fairchild as a maid and a chauffeur. Young Marc vowed to one day sit in the back of a limousine rather than drive it. Now that he has arrived professionally, he is determined to live the luxurious life his parents couldn’t afford.

J. D. Sinclair, Fairchild’s vice president and heir apparent, becomes impressed with Marc’s legal prowess and doubles his hourly fee. He decides to buy the old Sinclair mansion. As they settle in, his wife, Vanessa delivers the news that she’s pregnant. She is concerned by Marc’s newfound materialism, especially his hiring of Andrew and Monica as a butler and maid. In court, Sinclair is taken aback when he recognizes Esther as his family’s former maid. Tess, however, is delighted to meet her and finagles an invitation to Marc’s lavish housewarming party.

The attorney is chagrined when his mother helps play hostess at the affair. During the resulting discussion, Esther reveals she has lung cancer from exposure to second-hand smoke during her tenure at Fairchild. Marc is stunned by this turn of events and Vanessa’s increasingly vocal opposition to their new lifestyle. He tries to resign as Fairchild’s counsel but is persuaded to stay by a smooth-talking Sinclair, who later visits the Hamilton mansion and tacitly threatens Esther. Troubled, she returns home and retrieves a mysterious envelope.

During a subsequent court session, Marc and J. D. are stunned when Tess calls Esther as a material witness. The judge grants Marc a recess, but he returns home to discover Vanessa has moved in with his mother. In court the next day, Esther reveals the contents of her envelope–letters proving Fairchild tried to bribe the government not to release its 1964 report linking cigarette smoking with cancer. The company also bribed Marc’s father to be silent by buying the family a house. Unsure of what to do, Marc is given a revelation by Tess. She tells him to focus on the real prize, God’s love, “the only thing worth winning.” Upon return to the courtroom, he urges Esther to tell the truth, which prompts Sinclair to call for a settlement in the case.

Sara Perkins rebels against her overprotective mother by hiring Monica as her new photography assistant. Though the angel understands why the woman has covertly taken a freelance assignment to Bosnia, Tess–a volunteer helping Charlotte at the public library–thinks Sara’s actions are inconsiderate. Noting the mother and daughter act differently when the other is not present, Monica wonders what Tess does in her free time, but the supervisor is tight lipped. Sara returns from the trip and describes it to her mother, who becomes enraged and attacks her.

While she receives treatment at the hospital, the angels comfort a confused Charlotte. Regaining consciousness, Sara identifies her mother as the assailant. A police detective attempts to arrest Charlotte, but she resists violently and must be subdued. Jeff, the journalist who sponsored the Bosnia trip, and Monica visit Sara, who is shocked by her mother’s attack. Over the years the pair’s relationship has been troubled, but she never thought it would result in violence. A doctor soon sheds light on the problem: Charlotte has a massive, life-threatening brain tumor. Even if she survives the risky operation, she may have significant memory loss.

Devastated by the diagnosis, Sara tries to understand why Charlotte smothered her. Working with mother and daughter, respectively, Tess and Monica piece together the past. Sara needed an eye operation when she was seven. Since her father had abandoned the family, Charlotte took a job as a “photographer’s assistant, “which entailed posing nude. Understanding her mother sacrificed self-esteem to ensure she had that operation, Sara is crushed when Charlotte has a seizure and lapses into a coma. Monica and Tess, having revealed themselves as angels, encourage the woman to talk to her comatose mother.

Special Dispensation is granted, and the two women are able to openly express the love they never admitted before. Charlotte promises to try to hold on to one memory–the day she gave Sara her first camera. Though mother doesn’t recognize daughter after the successful operation, she has managed to hold on to their special memory. The women pledge to rebuild their friendship. Monica, meanwhile, persuades Andrew to show her how Tess spends her free time–training a cute, but incorrigible dog.

Apprenticed to Jordan Du Bois, a violin maker, Monica must ensure he finishes a violin he started 30 years earlier on the Christmas Day his son was born. The unsuspecting father doesn’t realize Tony has come home for the holidays with a devastating secret, which the angel soon learns: Tony has AIDS and has returned home to die. The truth comes out while father and son indulge in a late- night snack. Disappointed, Jordan distances himself from Tony.

Discovering the unfinished violin he had started those years ago, Monica learns that Tess had revealed herself to the violin maker back then. She announced his son’s impending birth and also gave him a piece of wood. But Jordan never completed the instrument because a flaw in the grain had appeared when he started planing the wood. Showing Monica the scrap heap where imperfect wood is discarded, Tony confronts his father, who disowns him. After his health takes a turn for the worse, Tony enters an AIDS hospice on Christmas Eve. His mother, Willa and sister, Nora attempt to persuade Jordan to visit with them but are unsuccessful.

Later that evening, the dying attorney hears carols down the hall and tells his hospice worker, Tess he would like to see an angel. She reveals herself, saying he has not disappointed God, but he panics, thinking the revelation is a morphine-induced hallucination. Back at the workshop, Monica appeals to the violin maker to reconcile with Tony and is joined by a passionate Andrew. Jordan’s response is to smash the violin.

Tess then admonishes the Angel of Death not to judge the violin maker, just as he should not judge Tony. Monica reveals herself to Jordan, telling him God accepts Tony for who he is and urging him to do likewise. Miraculously, the ruined violin is restored, and the violin maker takes it with him to the hospice. After reconciling with his estranged son, Jordan picks up the instrument, and the blemish in the wood transforms into the shape of a Christmas tree. He plays a lullaby as Tony succumbs to his illness and is greeted by Andrew

At a television news station, Monica is the new weather girl and Andrew, a cameraman. Sam explains their assignment is Rocky McCann, a hard-edged investigative reporter. Evasive regarding Tess’ whereabouts, the special agent angel tells the duo he is supervising them because of the universal ramifications of broadcasting. Monica, attempting to befriend the reporter, agrees to help her with research. Andrew’s first assignment with Rocky is a story about Horace and Zelda Wittenberg, an elderly couple with four foster children.

Impressed during the visit, the Angel of Death is mortified when Rocky’s story airs: it is an exposé alleging child abuse. Monica, whose biggest story is an upcoming lunar eclipse, sides with the reporter, while Andrew is frustrated by her rush to judgment. He confronts her, but Rocky tells him overlooking details on an earlier story led to a tragedy. After she reports Zelda had been arrested decades earlier for kidnapping her own son, the Social Services Department removes the foster children from the household. Chagrined that Monica uncovered that research, Andrew reminds her Rocky needs an angel, not a research assistant. Sam then advises Monica to concentrate on the weather, hinting the eclipse may be more important than she thinks. Andrew revisits the Wittenbergs to apologize for Rocky’s actions and learns Zelda’s kidnapping charge had been dismissed because she rescued her child from an abusive first husband.

The angel’s visit ends abruptly when the police raid the house searching for evidence. Rocky soon learns her anonymous tip about the elderly couple came from a dubious source. Heartbroken, Horace and Zelda intend to commit suicide until Andrew appears, revealing God still has work for them. Monica discovers the reporter’s zealousness resulted from an accident on a Ferris Wheel, the Eclipse, that disabled her husband. The angel informs Rocky God wants her to be His child, not His avenger. Once exonerated, the Wittenbergs agree to help the newswoman take care of her husband, William. At the conclusion of the case, Sam reveals Tess has been on loan to another department–Natural Phenomena and Acts of God–responsible for the lunar eclipse.

Working from different vantage points, the angels help rehabilitate Julia Fitzgerald, a drug addict who is down and out. Monica, posing as a street walker, persuades the police to round up the disheveled Julia with the other ladies. In jail, she is encouraged by the angel to enter the New Spring Halfway House administered by Tess. Though Julia wants to leave the program, her parole officer, Andrew advises her doing so will land her back behind bars since her arrest was a parole violation.

Plagued by a past action she committed, the woman deserts the halfway house to rejoin her friend, Fran on the streets. But when she misses the rendezvous, Monica persuades Julia to return to New Spring. As she makes steady progress in rehab, the woman decides to make amends with people she has offended. First on the list is Chuck, the bartender and former employer she stole from. He wants to have Julia arrested, but Andrew convinces the man to let her pay him back. She returns to the alley where she has jewelry hidden in a secret place. But after pawning it, Julia encounters Fran, who is being confronted by her pimp, Jimmy. Returning to the halfway house, she admits giving Jimmy most of the money to help Fran but saving enough for herself to get high.

Tess leaves to confront the unscrupulous man. Afterwards, Julia panics because she has lost a necklace with great sentimental value–a memento of the son she gave up to his father for fifty dollars. A fatigued Tess returns after recovering the money, teaching Jimmy a lesson, paying back Chuck, and finding Julia’s locket. Revealing that she and Tess are angels, Monica encourages Julia to press on despite setbacks because God will always be there to pick her up. Days later, after Fran has entered rehabilitation herself, the angels send Julia to Chicory Creek, Kentucky where she is to find a man with a 1949 burgundy Cadillac. That man turns out to be Erasmus Jones, and Julia is astonished to learn his extended family is Promised Land’s Greene family. When they return to town for Thanksgiving, the prodigal mother will be reunited with her son… Nathaniel Greene.

James Block, a man with a heart condition–and a criminal past–gets a second chance after a near-death experience. He suffers a heart attack after marrying his girlfriend, Rachel to prevent her from testifying against him. While “dead,” James sees Andrew walking toward the “light,” though he himself moves in the opposite direction. Realizing he must change his ways, James initiates a campaign of good works. Tess and Monica are assigned as nurses at the hospital where he is fulfilling community-service he received for a crime. Neither angel is impressed, however, with his apparent change of heart–especially when they realize he records his good deeds in a notebook.

James finds a kindred spirit in Amy Ann McCoy, a teenage Elvis Presley fan with cystic fibrosis. A bit of a con artist herself, the girl is unaware how serious her illness is. Meanwhile, James is haunted by a recurring nightmare of his near-death experience, finally realizing he was headed toward a roiling chasm of unending darkness. He again encounters Andrew, who admonishes, “Even if every one of your good deeds was a step to heaven, it would never reach high enough.” Unnerved, James destroys his notebook and plans to skip Amy Ann’s birthday party. Tess confronts him, telling him the teenager will soon die, and only her faith has sustained her all these years. James rails at God, but Tess tells him not to blame God for the mess he has made of his life.

As Rachel starts to apologize to Amy Ann for James’ absence, he arrives. But he puts a damper on the proceedings by telling the birthday girl how serious her illness is and that God doesn’t care. A furious Tess orders him to leave the room, and Rachel tells her husband she hopes never to see him again. Seeing Andrew in the corridor, James realizes he is the Angel of Death and attacks him. But Andrew avoids the human’s assaults, until Monica appears holding the notebook he had earlier destroyed. She tells him that hell is separation from God, and if he was on his way there, he was sending himself. Andrew then clarifies his earlier statement to James: no one can earn their way to heaven because only God’s mercy can lift a soul up and take him there. Repenting of his misdeeds, James prays and turns his life over to God. Overhearing her husband, Rachel realizes her own prayers have been answered. James returns to a dying Amy Ann, reassuring her that God exists and to take His hand and walk toward the light. The teenager dies as Elvis’ song, “Precious Lord” plays on a turntable.